184: Chapter 184 Targeting Esports: Tencent's Ideas

"Is it really that amazing?"

"I don't believe it."

As the most popular league of legends streamer on YouTube, Jeff had only just turned on his computer to start his stream today when he received countless private messages in his inbox.

These messages were all telling him that an incredibly exaggerated play had appeared during the Opening Match of the South Korea league of legends tournament.

But upon reading these messages, his first reaction was actually to be a bit skeptical.

After all, as the most popular league of legends streamer on YouTube, his own skill level was quite high, and he couldn't be bothered by ordinary plays.

However, constantly seeing the reminders in the chat, he finally clicked on a video that had been uploaded.

"I'll just watch it once, and then I'm going to play the game."

A few seconds later.

"What the hell!"

"Oh my god, what kind of play is this!"

...

After Jeff watched this video on stream, the popularity of this Zed vs. Zed duel video could no longer be contained globally.

Merely two hours after the South Korea Opening Match ended, whether it was on YouTube, Twitter, or other gaming communities and platforms, this video had climbed to the number one spot in popularity!

It even topped Weibo with a massive trending status.

In just a few short hours, the video's view count on YouTube exceeded ten million!

Some people even specifically recorded the reactions of overseas content creators seeing this video for the first time; these creators' expressions were more shocked and excited than the last.

Furthermore, the compilation video of these creators' shocked reactions quickly surpassed millions of views!

The scene of a low-health Zed killing a full-health Zed brought a shock to league of legends players that was truly too exaggerated; almost every league of legends player who saw this video for the first time would be left speechless.

At this moment, almost every league of legends player across the globe was discussing this Opening Match in South Korea.

"Sugoi, this Zed is so cool."

"I remember this esports tournament, our country is also a region, right? What date is the Opening Match? I want to go watch it!"

"It's god-tier, not just Faker, this entire team is very strong. Winning the South Korea regional championship shouldn't be a problem."

"I am willing to bestow upon him the title of God!"

While the video's popularity continued to skyrocket, the name Faker appeared for the first time in the eyes of countless league of legends players worldwide.

Furthermore, because the video came from the South Korea esports Opening Match, the entertainment value of the league of legends Phase 3 matches also started to be valued by many overseas players.

Originally, the Opening Matches for the South Korea and Great Xia regions, being the first two, had not received much attention from players before they started, and even though offline viewing was free, few people went to watch.

The Great Xia Opening Match was better because it went the full five games, so the venue was full by the fifth game. However, because the South Korea regional Opening Match was a 3-0 sweep, by the end, the venue only had one-third of the people left.

However, after Faker's play completely broke into the mainstream, the popularity of the upcoming Opening Matches in other regions was pushed to an incredibly exaggerated level.

Not only were the offline venues instantly packed, but even the online matches had a large number of players from outside those regions tuning in.

Since the South Korea region had a player of this caliber, other regions might have them too, so many players started following the matches of all regions.

Therefore, even though the Opening Matches for the other few regions hadn't started yet, the hype and attention were already maxed out.

This was something that even A Shui Team's reverse sweep hadn't achieved, because the Great Xia regional Opening Match hadn't broken into the mainstream among the global player base.

And with both Opening Matches becoming massive hits within Great Xia, the future of esports was almost beyond doubt.

Next, the offline attention for the second match of the Great Xia region was very high, and many sponsors were in the final stages of considering whether to officially enter the market.

The popularity of the second match was the final key factor in their considerations. After all, without viewing rewards, whether people would still watch the second match and for how long would determine the extent of their investment.

Although the current popularity and discussion surrounding esports looked very high, what these sponsors were looking for was long-term popularity and attention, not short-term, sudden bursts of hype. Not to mention, they also needed to determine the consumption habits of esports viewers.

Therefore, how many players would spend money to buy tickets for the second match's offline venue now that it wasn't free was also a key focus for them.

At this moment, besides these potential sponsors, there was also an internet conglomerate that had noticed the suddenly exploding esports popularity over the past two days and had turned its gaze toward it.

And what they were considering wasn't about sponsorships. What they wanted was this esports market, which potentially had huge prospects!

The next afternoon. With only a few minutes left until the second match of the Great Xia region. Shenzhen, Tencent Group. In the conference room on the twelfth floor of the headquarters building.

"How are the preparations going with dota 2 and Gabe?"

On the speaker's podium, Ma's voice slowly rang out.

On the other side, Sun Qiang, standing in front of the projection panel, nodded.

"The contingency plan for dota 2 has already been submitted to them. As long as we confirm the potential of esports, the gaming department can have everything set up in a very short time."

"By then."

"In at most half a month."

"We can directly launch the dota 2 Global Finals ahead of schedule and be the first to seize this wave of esports traffic."

Speaking of this, Sun Qiang paused. Although Tencent's internal dota 2 preparations were ready, the other side, Gabe, was not as easy to talk to.

"We have also contacted Gabe at Valve, telling them about our idea to jointly launch an esports tournament for a shooter game; CS is the most suitable shooter game for esports, but he hasn't replied yet."

"If esports really has potential, relying on our short-term obstruction tactics, we can make the scale of the dota 2 and CS tournaments even more exaggerated than the league of legends tournaments."

"Although we cannot catch up to the player count of league of legends, after our data analysis yesterday, we have determined that this brand-new industry of esports, if successful, can attract ordinary viewers from the non-player demographic."

"It might just help us overtake them on a curve."

After the popularity and reputation of the Great Xia regional Opening Match exploded, as the currently largest gaming company in the country, Tencent Group naturally set its sights on this piece of the pie.

You have to know, when it comes down to it, Langchao Group only has two games in its hands, but if esports really has potential, then the dozens of games in Tencent Group's hands are all huge gold mines.

And dota 2 was naturally used by them as a litmus test, because league of legends had expanded the MOBA player base by who knows how many times, and there would always be people who wanted to try dota 2.

Therefore, the number of daily active players for dota 2 was consistently above four million.

If they were the first to launch a Global Finals, and through throwing money and promotion, attracted a large number of non-game players to pay attention, perhaps the popularity of the dota 2 tournament could really surpass league of legends!

After all, soccer is so popular, but not that many of the spectators have actually played it. Esports is about the same; as long as the barrier to entry is low and ordinary viewers can understand it, then the number of players is not the deciding factor.

Listening to Sun Qiang's words, Ma took a deep breath and let out a long sigh.

He had originally thought that regarding the recent few games, Tencent Group had no way to turn things around, but he hadn't expected that Qin Mo would give him an opportunity to overtake them on a curve.

Judging by the global attention on esports over the past two days, if this esports trend could really take off, the industry chain and revenue it could drive would be far higher than that of several hit games.

"However, it's still early days; if, after the rewards are gone, this league of legends tournament doesn't have many people watching, then there's no point in us being so excited."

"Maybe this esports trend just looks popular, but in reality, doesn't have much potential."

"I remember today's match is about to start, right?"

As Ma's voice sounded, Sun Qiang nodded while turning on the projector behind him.

On the projection, the official league of legends stream, currently in countdown, soon appeared.

At the same time, there was also a data interface tracking how many viewers were on the entire platform.

Besides the number of viewers watching the stream, the number of viewers willing to spend money to buy tickets to attend in person was also a key focus for them.

"By the way, after reaching what kind of data metrics,"

"in our data model, would it mean esports contains huge potential and we can enter the market?"

After Ma finished speaking, an executive in the room immediately answered.

"The ticket price for the second match's venue is over a hundred, which isn't cheap for many league of legends players. In our estimation, as long as one-third of the players are willing to spend money to buy tickets and enter the ten-thousand-seat venue today, that is a passing grade."

"As for online."

"Because there are no more free skin rewards, if over five million players are watching across all platforms, it is completely worth it for us to enter the market. And the day before yesterday, this number was over forty million."

Hearing this number, Ma looked at Sun Qiang.

"Do you think this number can be reached?"

Sun Qiang hesitated for a moment, then finally shook his head.

"I'm afraid it's a bit difficult. Without rewards, whether online or offline, I'm afraid this tournament won't have too many people paying attention anymore."

"The short-term popularity of the past two days perhaps won't last too long."

"However, with Langchao Group's promotion, after a few matches, it should still be able to reach this data, and we can still enter the market."

After hearing this, Ma nodded as well.

"I think pretty much the same as you."

Meanwhile, just as the two were speaking, the stream finally began.

Everyone's gaze in the conference room turned toward the projection.

But just after one glance, everyone's expressions stiffened.

They saw that in the ten-thousand-seat venue the camera was focused on, there wasn't a single empty seat; countless viewers had fiery eyes, looking forward to today's match, and some were even cheering the names of the two teams.

On the other side, on the separately listed statistical data panel, the number of viewers across the entire network was currently jumping upward constantly.

One hundred thousand, one million, ten million!

In less than a minute, this number had already reached forty million!